Spin Dash/Charge is failing me

[Kirby Phelps (PK)]

Recently, whenever I play Sonic against my friends, I find myself never using Spin Dash or Spin Charge. It's because whenever I do, I get severely punished. I get grabbed or hit with a tilt, smash, or air attack. They time it perfectly. So instead, I just don't use them and play extremely patiently, spacing with tilts, jabs, grabbing and smashing at the right times. But, I feel like Spin Dash and Charge are integral components to how Sonic plays. Every Sonic main I see uses these moves consistently, but I keep failing at them. But I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I try to mix things up with half charged and fully charged Spin Dashes, but my opponents always see it coming. And when I do hit them and knock them in the air, following it up with more air attacks only gets me punished with their own air attack. Because I don't use Spin Dash and Charge, it makes me feel like I'm not playing Sonic correctly or not using him to his full potential. And when I try to and it gets me punished, it just makes me discouraged as a Sonic player...

 

[Kunoku]

Occasionally cancel the spin charges and dashes with the shield button to mind game them. After you get used to it you can start to integrate it into your grabs which is pretty cool. If you spin charge/dash in front of them while they are grounded. . .well you shouldn't because if they are competent you will never hit them. Try doing it while they are in the air such as when you send them flying and when you unleash the spin, time to land where they will touch the floor as there are a few frames that they will go threw regardless if they air dodge or not. Once you connect jump out of it and use an aerial. I use neutral air at low percentages and up air at mid to follow up into other aerials. Practice canceling your spins and the timing to hit them when they hit the ground. Once you get used to it, it becomes second nature and will most likely never go away. This is just touching the surface of Sonic's mechanics, there are loads of mix ups you can do. You can always just look at other players play or look at tutorials if you get confused or doubt your skill. Good luck and

inb4lock

 

[Iblistech]

Occasionally cancel the spin charges and dashes with the shield button to mind game them. After you get used to it you can start to integrate it into your grabs which is pretty cool. If you spin charge/dash in front of them while they are grounded. . .well you shouldn't because if they are competent you will never hit them. Try doing it while they are in the air such as when you send them flying and when you unleash the spin, time to land where they will touch the floor as there are a few frames that they will go threw regardless if they air dodge or not. Once you connect jump out of it and use an aerial. I use neutral air at low percentages and up air at mid to follow up into other aerials. Practice canceling your spins and the timing to hit them when they hit the ground. Once you get used to it, it becomes second nature and will most likely never go away. This is just touching the surface of Sonic's mechanics, there are loads of mix ups you can do. You can always just look at other players play or look at tutorials if you get confused or doubt your skill. Good luck and

inb4lock

This pretty much sums it up. I've never had any real problems with using Sonic's combos whenever I play as him.

 

[Camalange]

Fun Fact: Spin Dash and Spin Charge are terrible approaches.

Don't listen to what the For Glory subredditors tell you. It's bad. Predictable and easily beaten out or clanked. If you're directly trying to approach with it and are forecasting your option, that's bad. As said, you need to use it with purpose. You need to use it to bait and punish. If you charge Side-B and you see people trying to approach you to hit you out of it, you shield and punish OoS. If you see that people preemptively spotdodge while you're charging it, you time and release to punish. These are actually rather bad examples as most people don't fall for such a basic level trick, but those are the concepts you need to have when using it.

You have to put in the work for it.

inb4lock

Looks like I'm the one getting too predictable.